Connie's Pizza , the evil twin of Chicago pizza

A few weeks ago I got the chance to be a tourist in my own city! I checked into the Hyatt on Wacker for a few days for a meeting, and was planning on being the host and meal coordinator for dozens of colleagues from across the country.

We planned on getting some good pizza later in the week at Uno's, but alas- when I arrived, I found several of my friends eating in the hotel pizzeria- which was (brace for horror) - Connie's pizza!

Well, that did it for them and pizza for the week, and they left town thinking Chicago pizza was a big greasy pile of goo on bad crust. After all, the most popular pizza place in Chicago these days seems to be Connies.

I would hope Mayor Daley will address this issue and remove all Connie's pizza from tourist destinations. Its giving our city a bad name.

This stew is based on the savory rice porridge congee, which has roots in Chinese, Thai, and Korean cuisines. Though the dish uses some classic Asian ingredients—such as fish sauce, ginger, and bok choy—the flavors are not aggressively Asian.